09 Aug 2011 – Daily Monitoring Report
Key Headlines:
- U.S gives more aid to Somalia
- Low flying helicopters seen over Merka Lower Shabelle region
- Oxfam provides clean water sanitations to refugees in Dadaab refugee camp
- Kibaki: Somalia crisis straining Kenya
- African Union troops win battle in Somali capital
- Amnesty offer extended to insurgents in Somalia
- Somali Al-Shabaab…from local to international Jihad
SOMALI MEDIA
U.S gives more aid to Somalia
09 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan, Radio Mogadishu- 147 words
The United States is giving an additional $105 million in humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa, where famine is spreading in Somalia, says reports.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday the money, from U.S. President Barack Obama’s Emergency Relief and Migration Assistance Fund, will provide urgently needed food, health, shelter, water and sanitation assistance to those who desperately need help, Reuters reports.
Carney said the United States has provided about $565 million in humanitarian aid so far this year.
Drought and famine related crisis in Somalia has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the country, the majority of whom are sorely in need of humanitarian aid to keep them from starving to death.
Low flying helicopters seen over Merka, Lower Shabelle region
08 Aug- Source: Radio Kulmiye, Somaliareport- 39 words
Reports from Merka city of lower Shabelle region state that low-flying helicopters were seen over the insurgents strong hold district on Monday. Al Shabaab militia fired at the helicopters, causing the residents to worry that new airstrikes might follow.
Al Shabaab: We have plans to increase attacks against Somali government
09 Agu- Source: Radio Shabelle, Radio Kulmiye, Jowhar Online- 104 words
The al Shabaab insurgent group said they have set plans to increase attacks against the Somali government and AMISOM forces.
Sheikh Abdul-aziz Abu Musab, a spokesman of al Shabaab, said their fighters have launched attacks on military bases manned by Somali military and African Union forces in Mogadishu.
For his part, the commander of the Somali national army, Gen. Abdikarim Yusuf Adam told radio Shabelle that what al Shabaab had made could not be described as an offensive, noting that the group completely failed.
He said that al Shabaab’s attacks will not prevent the government and AMISOM forces from expanding throughout Mogadishu.
Car explosion kills 3 al Shabaab fighters in the south of Mogadishu
09 Aug- Source: Mareeg Online., Shabelle, Kulmiye, Risaala – 114 words
At least 3 members of al Shabaab were killed in KM-13 south the capital Mogadishu after a car filled with explosive elements exploded late yesterday afternoon, officials said.
Reports said that a little car filled with explosive materials, which was going to Mogadishu, exploded in the south of the capital, killing 3 al Shabaab fighters as the car completely destroyed and burned down.
Representative of al Shabaab for Banadir region, Sheikh Mohamed Hussein Abu Abdirahman, said he did not know the cause of the blast, but believes what he called ‘Allah’s enemy’ to be behind it.
http://www.mareeg.com/fidsan.
UNHCR sets to deliver more aid to Somalia next Thursday
09 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 125 words
United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Spokesman Ninm Andy has revealed that another consignment of humanitarian aid for the needy people in Somalia is set to land in Mogadishu next Thursday.
UNHCR says this is in line with United Nations efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to drought and famine-stricken people from badly affected regions in southern Somalia who are currently camping in refugee camps in the city in search of food.
The UN is also set to deliver next week humanitarian aid, which includes biscuits and other nutritious supplies to malnourished children in Somalia.
UNHCR has on Monday afternoon flown a 31-tonne consignment – including plastic sheeting for shelters, blankets and sleeping mats to aid famine victims in Mogadishu, its first airlift to the wartorn Mogadishu for five years.
Azerbaijan allocates $100,000 financial aid to Somalia
08 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 133 words
The Azerbaijani government has allocated $100,000 financial aid to Somalia to help tackle the consequences of drought and famine in the country.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said his government has allocated the financial aid to the needy people in Somalia, where over 29,000 children below the age of five have died of hunger in the past three months.
The UN has already declared five areas in Somalia famine zones. The famine is partly a consequence of the worst drought in the region in 60 years.
Drought meeting held in Hargeisa, Somaliland
09 Aug- Source: Somalilandpress- 226 words
The Somaliland Minister of Livestock, Dr. Abdi Aw Dahir Ali held a press conference at the Mansoor Hotel to explain the ways in which the government can aid the victims of the drought in Somaliland.
Various national and international representatives were present, including representatives from INGOs such as NERAD, AU/IEDR, farming experts, livestock herders and government representatives from other regional neighbours. Various strategies were discussed, aimed at addressing the plight and the grievances of the drought victims.
Dr. Al, opened up the session by stating that the country needed to assist those most effected in the villages and towns that might not be noticed because of their remoteness and that it was a true test of Somaliland’s governance. He also called on the NGOs present to work tirelessly to help the countries affected in this difficult time.
http://somalilandpress.com/
Drivers call for the government to reopen Mogadishu roads
09 Aug- Source: Radio Shabelle- 99 words
Some of the drivers called for the transitional federal government of Somalia to reopen all the roads in the capital which had been closed down during three years due to violence in Mogadishu. The drivers admitted that the closure of the Bakara market and the streets leading to it had bad impacts on their lifestyle.
A minibus driver told radio Shabelle that the government is needed to allow access to the Bakara market.
The comments of some of Somali drivers come as Somali government is expanding throughout Mogadishu after al Shabaab fled the city.
Oxfam provides clean water, sanitation to refugees in Dadaab camp
09 Aug- Source: Radio Bar-kulan- 113 words
Oxfam International executive director Jeremy Hobbs says his organisation will provide clean water and sanitation systems to needy people in Dadaab refugee camp, northern Kenya.
Jeremy Hobbs said people in the camp sorely need clean water and medical care as they are facing severe starvation, malnutrition and thirst, adding that Oxfam has also water and sanitation projects in southern Somalia.
He said that Somali refugees arriving at Dadaab are registered and given a health screening, with most of then ending up in a very hot and dusty environment with nothing much to do but survive. Hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees are seeking shelter at the Dadaab refugee camp complex in northeastern Kenya.
REGIONAL MEDIA
Kibaki: Somalia crisis straining Kenya
09 Aug- Aug- Source: Capital FM- 415 words
President Mwai Kibaki has called on the international community to appreciate Kenya’s predicament and the pressure the nation was experiencing by hosting over half a million Somali refugees while many more were streaming in.
Appealing to the international community to swiftly intervene in the current drought ravaging the Horn of Africa region, President Kibaki stated that Somali refugees need to be settled inside their country and be given food and other forms of support they may require while there.
Kenya, he affirmed, would support setting up of feeding camps inside Somalia. The President, who made the remarks on Monday at his Harambee House Office when he held discussions with Dr Jill Biden, the wife of the US vice president, noted that such an arrangement would make things much easier and convenient for all actors involved in the unfolding calamity.
The Head of State categorically stated that the refugees entry to Kenya is not helping the situation neither is it a long-term solution.
Noting that the drought affected a population estimated at 10 million people, President Kibaki appreciated the support extended by the United States of America in efforts to cushion the suffering people and to normalize the situation.
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/
African Union troops win battle in Somali capital
09 Aug- Source: Coastweek, Xinhua- 792 words
For Uganda, the dislodging of the Somali militant group al Shabaab from the Somali capital Mogadishu by the African Union (AU) troops comes as exciting news but also a call for heightening of security back home for fear of reprisal attacks.
Uganda forms the bulk of the AU troops that have been fighting in the war-torn Horn of African country since March 2007.
The other troop-contributing country is Burundi.
After days of intensive fighting, Mogadishu over the weekend fell into the hands of the African Union peacekeeping forces and the Somali Transition Federal Government (TFG).
The al Shabaab group has vowed to come back and continue fighting, a thing the Ugandan military was describing as “kicks of a dying horse”.
The Ugandan military argued that in fact where the al Shabaab has relocated makes the outfit more vulnerable than in Mogadishu.
Uganda’s army spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye told Xinhua in an interview on Monday that more caution has to be taken in Mogadishu and in Uganda because the militants may resort to the use of suicide bombs.
“Al Shabaab has lost (…) Mogadishu, they may wish to revenge either through suicide bombs within Mogadishu itself or even here in Kampala,” he said.
http://www.coastweek.com/3431_
Rift over fourth refugee camp in Kenya
08 Aug- Source: Daily Nation- 332 words
Sharp differences have emerged between Kenya and the UN refugee agency over a proposal to open another refugee camp in the country.
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner James Ole Serian told Kenyan ambassadors visiting Dadaab that the government could not allow yet another camp being proposed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), citing security concerns. “We had to stop the decision by the UN agency to create a fourth refugee camp here because, in the first place, this has to be approved by Cabinet,” Mr Ole Serian told the 52 envoys. A UNHCR official in Dadaab, Mr Fafa Olivier Attidzah, however, sent a different signal to the envoys.
While Mr Ole Serian said the proposal had created a rift between local communities in Fafi and Laghdhera constituencies, Mr Attidzah told the envoys that the two constituencies had no objections. “We propose to move some refugees from crowded camps and we are working on the Ifo extension where we plan to settle 90,000 people by the end of November. We had a problem, but we have since resolved it and the local community is very supportive,” The UNHCR official said. Mr Attidzah said the influx of refugees has overcrowded Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera camps, leading to the mushrooming of alternative settlements with no proper sanitation.
There were 397,000 refugees at the three camps at the weekend, with the numbers swelling, as between 1,200 and 1,500 arrive daily.
The PC told the envoys that the government has made three proposals to deal with the influx of refugees. “There is need to relocate them to other countries; the US has agreed to receive a large number. Humanitarian agencies should drop food inside Somalia to stop refugees streaming into Kenya and there is an urgent need to stabilise Somalia and support its government,” he said.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/
African Union to host donor conference to help Somalia
09 Aug- Source: Coastweek, Xinhua- 479 words
African countries will hold a conference later this year in solidarity with Somalia and to mobilise support to address the country’s situation, a Kenyan diplomat has said.
Kenya’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, Monica Juma said the forum will help to address the crisis in Somalia, which has contributed to the famine disaster in Kenya because of influx of refugees.
“There is need to think seriously about the security situation in Somalia, which is worsening the refugee problem in Kenya,” said the envoy during a visit to refugee camps in northern Kenya on Monday.
The delegation of over 60 ambassadors visited Ifo Extension and Dagahaley refugee camps in Dadaab to have a first hand experience of the situation in the largest refugee site in the world. The increased influx of refugees from Somalia at between 1,300 and 1,500 persons per day has posed a major challenge in the provision basic services in Dadaab refugee camps.
The diplomat’s decision to visit the camps arose out of their conviction that they can utilise their positions to appeal for more help and win support from the Governments in the countries they serve in dealing with the refugee problem.
“It was necessary that the envoys have a feel of the conditions in the camps for them to be able to represent the situation appropriately and ask for support from their countries of accreditation,” said Kenya’s acting political and diplomatic Secretary, Ambassador Michael Oyugi.
http://www.coastweek.com/3431_
Al Jazeera speaks to Islamic Relief on the Somalia drought
08 Aug- Source: Al Jazeera- 47 words
Somalia is suffering its worst drought in 60 years, but getting aid to the country has been difficult because al Shabaab fighters control much of the country’s most desperate areas. Jehangir Malik, the director for aid organisation Islamic Relief talked to al Jazeera about the situation on the ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Amnesty offer extended to insurgents in Somalia
09 Aug- Source: CNN- 204 words
Somalia’s transitional government has offered a general amnesty to insurgent fighters in Mogadishu who surrender and promise to renounce violence.
The decision made by the Cabinet over the weekend was announced Tuesday and comes after Al- Shabaab retreated from the capital, Mogadishu, early Saturday.
The al Qaeda-linked group has been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s transitional government since 2006.
In confirming that Al-Shabaab fighters had left the city, spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said the fighting was hardly over. “The reasons we withdrew from Mogadishu is we have made changes in our tactics of war,” he told the group’s radio station, Andalus. “We withdrew because we want to save lives of the poor civilians but we will launch operations against government (and African Union) forces in the coming hours.”
Some believe the Islamists withdrew because of funding woes and drought-related issues. The United Nations has declared famine in five areas of southern Somalia, including Mogadishu. In all, about 12 million people in the Horn of Africa region need assistance. Somalia is the worst hit.
“The immediate priority must now be to focus on the humanitarian situation and I call on all parties, from the donor community to all parts of the Transitional Federal Government, to do everything possible to ensure and facilitate the immediate delivery of assistance to those most in need,” U.N. special representative Augustine Mahiga said.
Al-Shabaab has called the famine a “crusader” invention and an excuse for occupation, and issued threats to aid agencies delivering food to afflicted areas.
As crops withered, thousands of people fled and livestock starved. But the militants kept their ban on aid groups operating in their territory in southern and central Somalia, and parts of the capital.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/
Video: Feeding Somalia’s hungry
08 Aug- Source: CNN- 13 words
Anderson Cooper talks to humanitarian Amanda Lindhout about the ongoing crisis in Somalia.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/
Celebrities join forces for Somalia famine relief
09 Aug- Source: UK net guide – 157 words
More than 150 stars have pledged to take to their Facebook and Twitter pages to support the I’m Gonna Be Your Friend fundraising effort, organised by Save the Children as part of a campaign to highlight the famine in east Africa.
In a bid to raise awareness of the 21st century’s first major famine – which is sweeping through Somalia and affecting around ten million people – a special video download featuring Bob Marley & The Wailers’ High Tide or Low Tide is being released today (August 9th).
The charity hopes 600 million people will watch the film, made by The Last King Of Scotland director Kevin MacDonald.
Somalis worry about family
08 Aug- Source: Chatham daily news – 571 words
To Adam Muse and Sarah Yusuf, the drought and famine in eastern Africa is more than a sad news story.
It’s the harsh reality facing their family. The couple, who came to Chatham as refugees from Somalia in 2004, are concerned about the loved ones still living in the Horn of Africa, including their four adult children Abdi, Muna, Faysal and Mahamad.
“We’re worrying every day, we never sleep,” Muse said. Yusuf fights back tears when she talks about the hunger and thirst her three sons, daughter, mother and three grandchildren are experiencing.
“They are starving,” she said, noting she spoke with her mother three days ago. Her mother and three grandchildren still live in Somalia but her children have fled to Kenya. Muse said their four children walked for 30 days from Somalia to Kenya to escape the hunger and danger.
He said that while drought has struck the region with widespread famine, other risks have faced Somalians for the past 20 years.
“It’s not safe,” he said, noting people constantly have to worry about rebels and terrorists. “The government there is not a government. You worry rebels will kill you in the night.” Yusuf added: “Now I worry about guns, hunger and no water.”
The couple is trying to bring their children to Canada but the process is long and difficult for them to navigate.
http://www.chathamdailynews.
BLOGS/EDITORIAL/CULTURE
Al Shabaab: from local to international Jihad
08 Aug- Source: Islam Online- 960 words
The Somali al Shabaab al Mujahideen movement (AKA al Shabaab) came into existence in light of the anarchy which engulfed the Somali political scene following the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Originally, the small youth militia arm of a relatively moderate Islamist organization that rose to power in 2006, al Shabaab was radicalized and brought to prominence as a popular Islamist guerilla movement by Ethiopia’s invasion in December 2006. Since 2008, al Shabaab has undergone yet another transformation, this time from a largely nationalist organization focused on driving out Ethiopia through conventional military means to a hybrid movement that has increasingly embraced transitional terrorism and attempted to portray itself as part of the al Qaeda-led global war against the West.
Al Shabaab was originally part of the ICU. The group began as a militant remnant of a previous Somali Islamist organization which participated in the ouster of Barre. However, by 2000, only the youngest, most militant members remained. The group was led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who reformed al Shabaab and incorporated it into the ICU as the courts’ radical youth militia. As Aweys’ importance grew within the ICU, he passed leadership of al Shabaab on to one of his followers, Aden Hashi Ayro, who later led al Shabaab into a campaign against Mogadishu’s warlords in early 2006, helping the ICU gain control of the capital. As the threat grew, Ethiopia invaded Somalia on December 24th 2006, rapidly destroying the ICU and taking control of Mogadishu.
Since early 2008, al Shabaab underwent a series of stark changes. Although it had originally emerged as an Islamist-nationalist guerilla army focused on combating Ethiopian troops within Somalia, over the next 2 years it sought new means by which to sustain itself. During this period, it rapidly transformed itself from a local movement into an al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group that seeks to propagate terrorist attacks against Western targets. While the lack of governance in south-central Somalia continues to provide a haven from which al Shabaab can operate, the changes the group underwent in this period were driven primarily by an aligning of its interests with al Qaeda core and by the emergence of information communication technology as an effective means by which to gain support and to recruit fighters from the Middle-East, Africa, Europe, and North America.
There has been some speculation that al Shabaab was forced to turn to al Qaeda core because of declining popular support within Somalia. While there may be some validity to this theory, much of the evidence frequently cited to validate it suffers problems of chronology or causality. Al Shabaab began to reach out to al Qaeda in early 2008, almost a year before the Ethiopia withdrew. Further, the use of suicide bombers was an effect, rather than the cause of closer relations with al Qaeda core.
Following the Ethiopian invasion and its break with the ICU, al Shabaab became a solitary organization, yet beginning in early 2008 that group began aggressively courting and attempting to partner with the broader al Qaeda movement. As a consequence of its deepening relationship with al Qaeda core, al Shabaab has undergone a transformation in leadership. Following the death of Aden Hashi Ayro in May 2008, a number of al Qaeda core members were integrated into the group’s command structure.
The future of al Shabaab….
Based on the current trend over the next 15 years al Shabaab will likely splinter, dispersing trained and radicalized fighters across the globe. In the short term, the ability of the group to unseat the TFG is largely irrelevant to the group’s future as a terrorist organization. A rift appears to be growing between al Shabaab factions, which is likely to widen as time passes. The recent increase in the power and pride of place give to foreign fighters as well as those fighters’ emphasis on the transitional dimension of the conflict has reportedly led to a high level of tension between Somali nationalist faction and the foreign fighters within al Shabaab, thus leading to a split.
Without the protection of the nationalist faction, the foreign faction will be at the mercy of local clans and warlords, many of whom are inherently hostel to outsiders. However, while ethnic Somalis operating in the Horn of Africa may pose a risk to regional stability, it is the foreign fighters who represent a greater risk. Former al Shabaab fighters, especially Westerners, will in turn use their access to travel and familiarity with the West to facilitate further attacks on the West.
Although the foreign elements of al Shabaab may eventually be driven out from Somalia, their diaspora likely represents a far greater danger for transitional terrorism than the organization itself currently poses.
Pursue al Shabaab now
08 Aug- Source: Daily Nation- 204 words
Somali leaders claim to have routed al Shabaab from Mogadishu. This would be great news if only it can be taken at face value.
For it will take more than lofty pronouncements to destroy this militia group with its links to the notorious al Qaeda. After all, the conditions that created it have not been addressed. Lack of a central government since strongman Siad Barre was ousted 20 years ago, widespread poverty, prolonged droughts, religious fundamentalism, and the entrenchment of vicious warlords, are some of the reasons why al Shabaab came to be.
The fact that it has held sway in Mogadishu for at least a decade is another reason to doubt that it could be defeated overnight.
Al Shabaab says it has just tactically retreated from Mogadishu. There are no reasons to doubt it when it vows to fight on in other areas of southern Somalia.
We know what the terror group can do as attested to by bomb attack it carried out in Uganda last year. We know that the group has cells and financiers in Kenya and elsewhere. Instead of celebrating its demise, this is the time to pursue even more vigorously the wounded self-declared enemy of Kenya, Uganda and Burundi.
Should Somalia be allowed to join East African Community? Most decidedly
08 Aug- Source: daily Nation- 413 words
In a paper which I read at a recent conference at Maseno University, I argued that as we prepare to admit the new independent state of South Sudan into the East African Community, we should not forget Somalia.
I argued that geographically shielded from the African continent by Kenya and Ethiopia, Somalia will forever be our headache until we absorb it into the fold of her East African neighbours.
This, in fact, was the point which Tom Mboya and Julius Nyerere made in 1962 when they flew to Mogadishu to persuade Somalia to join the East African Community.
But things did not work out, because at the time, the Somalis were emotionally involved in the agitation for a Greater Somalia.
They wanted Kenya’s North Eastern Province and Ethiopia’s Ogaden Province to be ceded to them. Nevertheless, when Somalia is confronted by tragedies, Kenya and Ethiopia are usually their immediate centres of refuge.
Currently, the Somalis are faced with one of the harshest droughts in their history. About 450,000 of them have fled from their country, with roughly 1,400 refugees arriving daily at Dadaab refuge camp, despite the fact that officially, Kenya’s border with Somalia is closed.
Interestingly, two very intelligent colleagues at the conference objected to my suggestion that Somalia should join the East African Community.
According to them, the Somalis are quarrelsome and brutal terrorists. They are difficult to live with and to do business with.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/